Guru Gobind Singh Ji — The Warrior Poet of the Khalsa

Gobind Rai — who would become Guru Gobind Singh — was born on 22 December 1666 in Patna Sahib, Bihar, to Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji and Mata Gujri Ji. He was nine years old when his father was martyred by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for defending the right of the Kashmiri Pandits to practice their faith — a sacrifice of one's life for another community's freedom. The young boy now bore the full weight of the Guru's seat.

Gobind Singh had a genius that ranged across domains — he composed poetry in Brajbhasha, Sanskrit, Persian, and Punjabi; he trained as a warrior and hunter; he studied philosophy and governance. His Nitnem banis — daily prayers — are literary masterpieces. Jaap Sahib, his daily composition, names the Divine in 199 attributes drawn from multiple traditions, languages, and philosophical systems.

On the festival of Baisakhi, 30 March 1699, at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh called the entire Sikh community together. Before tens of thousands, he drew his sword and asked: "Who will give their head for Dharma?" The silence was stunned. Then one by one, five men stepped forward. These Panj Pyaare — the Five Beloved — were taken into the tent. The crowd outside heard the sound of a sword. The Guru emerged alone, sword bloodied.

Then the five men walked out, alive, transformed. The Guru had tested their courage with a sleight of hand — he had cut a goat — and finding five willing to die, had initiated them with Amrit — the nectar of the double-edged sword stirred with iron — and given them a new identity: the Khalsa. He gave them the name Singh — lion — and took it himself: Gobind Singh.

His life was defined by enormous grief matched by unconquerable spirit. At the Battle of Chamkaur in December 1704, his two elder sons, Ajit Singh (18) and Jujhar Singh (14), fought and fell. His two younger sons, Zorawar Singh (9) and Fateh Singh (7), were captured and brought before the Mughal governor Wazir Khan, who offered them the choice of conversion or death. They chose death and were bricked alive into a wall. Mata Gujri Ji, the Guru's mother, died the same day.

When word reached the Guru, he composed the Zafarnama — Letter of Victory — a Persian letter to Aurangzeb, written in the aftermath of his greatest personal losses, declaring with absolute spiritual authority that he had won because his cause was righteous. He died in 1708 at Nanded, Maharashtra — having declared the Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal, living Guru, and the Sangat as the body of the Khalsa. His last gift to his people was a community that would carry the Guru's spirit without him.